


Read You Like a Book

by alottlehomo



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: ADD!Ezekiel, College AU, Dyslexic!Ezekiel, M/M, Professor!Jenkins, Teacher-Student Relationship, jenzekiel week, there's not a lot of dialogue tbh im probably going to expand later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 08:03:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7836727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alottlehomo/pseuds/alottlehomo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when Ezekiel has Dyslexia and ADD, and Professor Jenkins Galahad is exposed to memes and cappuccinos?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Read You Like a Book

Two months into the year is the first time they really talk; Ezekiel is failing, hard, he can’t tell the difference between a lord and a duke and how knighthood was even established is a mystery to him. He’s guessing and hoping and failing and the professor is great except for the part where he just lectures and lectures. The man is great conversation, great banter, but he isn’t getting on Ezekiel’s level. His dyslexia fucks up his notes so it doesn’t matter whether he takes them or not, it doesn’t make a difference in his grades if he can’t read them. All around he’s fucked just like his grades, so it’s quite a bit of a relief when the professor tells him to stay after class.

It starts out basic, “I’ve noticed you’ve been falling behind in class..” blah blah blah, “ What can I do to help you understand the material..” blah blah blah. Then it happens, Ezekiel says something witty and the professor laughs. They actually start talking and Ezekiel explains he can’t take notes and he can’t read the book because of his dyslexia, how the other students in the class distract him easily because of his ADD. They actually manage to work something out after that one chat, which seems a miracle to Ezekiel - it’s different, having a teacher that understands. Jenkins, as the professor's name tag reveals, insists that they meet twice a week after class and at lunches on test week. 

Ezekiel thinks it’s absolutely hilarious when he exposes Jenkins to memes for the first time, it’s grumpy cat of course, because “You look just like him, all angry and judgy.” Ezekiel will croon and Jenkins will roll his eyes. Ezekiel almost believes he’s annoyed by it until Jenkins starts making power points for the class and there’s grumpy cat on the first slide. “ Do I look like I care about your Questing Beasts? Because I don’t”

They bond, of course they do, they spend the better part of their weeks together and Ezekiel talks about memes and games and Pokemon GO, and Jenkins helps Ezekiel understand the lecture of the day. They start going to the campus cafe when the weather gets cooler and it takes approximately ten seconds for Ezekiel to register the fact that Jenkins is just the kind of guy to drink black coffee, before Jenkins is ordering it, followed by Ezekiel’s very own “sugar-milk” as Jenkins dubbed it after looking at the vaguely beige swill in Ezekiel’s cup.

He’d started coming to class early ages ago but now he brings coffee too. Jenkins’ black with two sugars, and his own four creams and four sugars. They talk about everything those days and it’s during one of the last classes before Christmas that Ezekiel finally gets his number, so they can text instead of email. They excuse it by assuming it would only be used for professional purposes (within three hours of having his number Ezekiel is sending Jenkins memes) and within a week of school being out they make plans to meet up.

No one needs to know they spend Christmas day together.. And maybe new years too. No one ever needs to hear about how they drunkenly pecked each other on the lips when the ball dropped. They message each other all the time and Ezekiel gets ahead in class, he still misses some questions and fails some tests because he can’t read the page but Jenkins always reassures him.

“You’re doing fine, Ezekiel, for all I’ve seen you improving a few misses is hardly a problem. You’re a nuisance in class of course, but gradewise you’re doing remarkably well.” is what Jenkins tells him after a particularly difficult test when Ezekiel gets a straight F and has a panic attack right before Jenkins’ eyes (it’s the first time Jenkins holds him and it fucks him up for a week because he should not like holding him as much as he does). After that they spend an exponentially more amount of time together. Whenever Ezekiel is anxious about classes or grades or anything at all  he talks to Jenkins, even when it’s for Professor Carsens class, which Jenkins prefers not to keep up with. They talk and they talk and they talk (never about New Years, New Years didn’t happen) and then it’s the end of the year and Ezekiel passed the class and he’s met all his requirements. 

Jenkins is front and center at Ezekiel’s graduation ceremony right next to Ezekiel’s friends, a mathematics major with red hair and a history major with a minor and mythology and an accent to contrast Jenkins’ own. Jenkins’ briefly wonders about the appropriateness of the situation, he’s only a professor after all, but he feels this lightweight feeling of pride in his chest when they call Ezekiel’s name and he gets his diploma, and it’s far more than any other pride he’d felt for a student. 

Afterwards when they’re all together by Ezekiel’s car and there’s crooning and congratulations, and they’re all joined by none other than the security officer Eve Baird and Professor Flynn Carsen, Jenkins finds his own behavior even odder. There were plenty of teachers here, in the teachers section, none of them standing with the friends and family and spouses of the graduating class. He knew that. So why had he stood with Ms. Cillian and Mr.Stone throughout the ceremony? He elects not to delve too deep into thought about that particular topic as he realizes that by all technicality until the next week, Ezekiel is still his student.

They don’t last a week after the graduation ceremony without seeing each other. Jenkins is working on lesson plans for the next year, he’s incorporating more of Ezekiel’s ideas into it after realizing what an improvement there was in the class scores when he changed things up. He’s working on lesson plans and he gets a call, a panicking Ezekiel on the other end of the line asking if because school is over he should get rid of Jenkins number, if Jenkins doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. They’ve been around each other long enough, learned enough about each other, for Jenkins to know the very real abandonment issues that have Ezekiel asking these questions at all - he doesn’t hesitate to invite Ezekiel over, tells him he needs new ideas for class memes when the truth is that he misses him and the banter and the constant push and pull that made them work.

That’s how the sleepovers start. When Ezekiel arrives he’s still fidgety, still anxious, Jenkins just lets him work through it, making quips and references that he wouldn’t have understood six months ago. Ezekiel finally starts making come backs and they end up making memes and lesson plans together with Ezekiel adding student notes at the bottoms of complicated slides so the poor kids next year could keep up. They fall asleep on the floor, each with a laptop and coffee in front of them (black and sugar-milk respectively), their shoulders are pressed together propping each other up, and they stay that way straight through the night - and several nights after that.

No one questions it, Jenkins thinks Ezekiel might have warned them not to, but he doesn’t mind, not as they fall into a routine of dinner on Sunday nights, movies on thursdays, and Pokemon Go on Tuesdays (Ezekiel insists he can only get the rare stuffy pokemon when Jenkins is around). Summer starts to end and classes begin again and they still spend time together even though Ezekiel isn’t his student anymore, in fact he isn’t a student at all, he’s an IT manager for a sidestream computer networking company that looks like it’s run by hipsters but it pays well which means Jenkins can make him pay for dinner.

They don’t really acknowledge they’re practically together until a student comes back to Jenkins’ classroom after hours to see Ezekiel and him laughing together and awkwardly tells the professor that she didn’t realize he “swung that way” before awkwardly rushing away. Even then it takes Eve asking how Jenkins’ boyfriend is for him to realize just how far it had gone. He nearly cuts it off, stops it before it can start,but he realizes it’s already started. He loves this too-smart know it all sarcastic ass and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Ezekiel loves him too, despite his age. He acknowledges that it’s too late to stop it without hurting himself or worse Ezekiel and simply resigns himself.

Their first official kiss, since New Years doesn’t count, is in Jenkins’ apartment and it’s a surprise to him when he isn’t the one who initiates it. They’re lounging, watching Guardians of the Galaxy while Jenkins mentally tallies all the numerous similarities between Peter Quill and Ezekiel when suddenly the younger man is lifting his head up from where he’s resting it casually in Jenkins’ lap, and pressing their lips together with a grumbled, “ If you think any louder I’ll need subtitles for the movie Jenks.” and Jenkins could shudder later on at how much he detests that nickname coming from anyone else. 

They make their relationship official on Jenkins’ birthday, when they both decided they would just do a small sit in at Jenkins’ apartment, invite whoever Jenkins wanted - no one it would seem, he preferred solitude especially on days that were supposed to be “about him”, 

“ It’s my birthday, if I want calm, peace, and quiet then that’s what I should get.”

“Jenks, you do realize you invited me right? All that’s already out the window.”

Jenkins’ birthday goes quite well despite previous assumptions, that is until Jenkins’ ex boyfriend Lancelot shows up (a name Ezekiel will never let Jenkins live down due to his profession) and demands to have answers, pries about who the “boy toy” is and what he’s doing there on Jenkins’ birthday to which Ezekiel self-righteously responds that he’s Jenkins’ boyfriend, something he apologizes for later numerous times until Jenkins shuts him up with a kiss and promises to watch star wars if he would “just stop apologizing and let me laugh at the memory of the shock on his face”.

“So it doesn’t bother you, that I called you my boyfriend then?” Ezekiel asks after a few moments of blissful silence where Jenkins actually thought he’d won.

“Of course not, you are my “boyfriend” after all.” Jenkins shrugged, completely casual as he placed his chin atop Ezekiel's head and ignoring the way he could practically feel Ezekiel’s grin like a sixth sense.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave comments and kudos below or follow me on tumblr at queerezekiel.tumblr.com to see more works like this! I thrive on attention guys, see you soon!


End file.
